What Is Difficulty of Lightweight Automobiles? (Part One)

Source: Junying Author: Junying Posted: 2017-10-20 13:53:03 Hits: 29

People pay close attention to new energy and automatic drives in future development direction of automobiles. However, people hardly pay attention to lightweight automobiles. Some people even think that automobiles will be unsafe after they become lighter. Actually, lightweight automobiles not only can directly reduce fuel consumption, but also can indirectly improve dynamic performance and drivability and shorten braking length. The reduction of the fuel consumption reduces the emission of the pollutant, which is very important for environmental protection. Therefore, competition of automobiles must be competition of light weight.

Nowadays, many Chinese cars are in the development direction of high-end automobiles, resulting in sufficient materials of automobiles. Therefore, the automobile is relatively heavy. Many users say that the cars have a good sense of high class, but they consume too much gasoline. Thus, lightweight automobiles have become a difficulty which is hard to be dealt with for car brands.

The earliest light weight we know perhaps is the automobile's body which is made of aluminum alloy. In fact, light weight of the automobile is systems engineering, which is very complicated. This article will give you a simple introduction.

With the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other agreements, environmental protection has become a hot top in the world. Cars which cause serious pollution have been the center of public opinion. There is a general goal which is set for modern cars. The average weights of cars should be reduced by 10%, and their petrol consumption should be reduced by 6%; pollutants should be reduced by 2.5% to 8.8%; acceleration performance should be improved by 8%; steering performance should be improved by 6% and brake performance should be improved by 5% by 2017.

The benefits of lightweight automobiles are obvious, but the premise of obtaining the benefits is that the safety standards of the cars can not be lowered. It is very difficult to realize lightweight automobiles based on safety. At present, car manufacturers mainly use materials with light weight and high strength to reduce weights of cars' bodies, chassis, power systems and other parts.

People give more attention to aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy when it comes to the use of the materials. These two materials are used for replacing steel so as to reduce weight and improve strength. The weight of aluminum is only one third of iron, and the recycling rate of aluminum is high. Eighty percent of aluminum for cars is recyclable, and it is twice the amount of iron. However, aluminum also has many shortcomings including not being able to be welded, being difficult to be painted and not having safety as good as steel. Therefore, some car manufacturers only use aluminum partially for cars, and most of car bodies' structures are made of steel.